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Paul has a motivation to deal with 'keeping faith and a good conscience' or 'holding faith and a good conscience' (ESV). In context this is faith in the prophecies (apostolic teaching?) he had received.
What had Hymenaeus and Alexander done to 'shipwreck' their faith. Arndt & Gingrich's Greek lexicon gives the meaning of this word from apwthew as 'reject, repudiate' (1957:102). Therefore Lenski's commentary, based on the Greek, concludes that
The consequence for Hymenaeus and Alexander was that Paul has them 'handed over to Satan'. What this means exactly has been the cause of much debate. However, it seems evident that these two men no longer have a good conscience and faith, so it seems that Paul means that these two are '"put back into Satan's sphere," outside the church and the fellowship of God's people.... Paul expects by such an "excommunication" they will "be caught not to blaspheme"' (Gordon D Fee 1988:59).
What 'blaspheme' means here is not certain but there are hints in context. In 1:13 Paul says of his life before Christ, 'formerly I was a blasphemer' and in 6:4 he states that 'slander' (ESV) or 'malicious talk' (NIV) that come out of 'a different doctrine' (ESV) or 'false doctrines' (NIV). However the word is blasphemiai (i.e. blasphemies). This is from a list of what happens as a result of false teachers who had 'an unhealthy craving for controversy' (6:4 ESV).
Thus handing over to Satan seems to be an action of excommunication because they had rejected God's grace for salvation and had pursued the arguments of the false teachers. It seems that Timothy was in Ephesus to deal with the false doctrine that was being perpetrated by false teachers and this was leading people away from the faith.
Oz
So you don't think that they were apostate, right?
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